I’d recently been suffering a case of the decorating blahs.

There are only so many times you can rearrange the same ol’ pieces after all, so I’m delighted to be working with Target to freshen up my decor for the new season.

It was time to send the hurricane lamp to the bench for a break and bring in a new player for the dining table centrepiece.

I’d been wanting to try out a cloche for ages, but they were always too boring, or too formal or too expensive, so I was pleased to find this quirky one with a metal base. At the moment it is housing a stunning faux giant peony from Lotus Flowers but I can imagine it will be a really versatile piece that I’ll be able to change up with the seasons and holidays.

Flowers are the ultimate decorating accessory, of course, so I paired it with some supermarket tulips for a really fresh, happy centrepiece.

I picked up this sweet artwork by Peach Patrol a few weeks ago at a market and it had been sitting waiting for the perfect frame. I’ve bought frames like these from Target before and I keep coming back to them as the double mat gives it a way higher-end look than the nine bucks they cost!

I then turned my attention to the laundry. I am terrible at keeping indoor plants alive so it makes sense for me to go faux. There was a great selection but I ultimately decided on this cracked glaze potted succulent. I think it’s rather charming!

I also spotted this cute gardening tool kit (green! in a tin!) and knew it would be the perfect practical accessory for the laundry shelving, which is adjacent to the door into the courtyard. (Sorry, I can’t find the link online but check your local store.)

So there you have it! A mini freshen up of our downstairs was just the thing to get me out of my decorating funk.

How about you? What have you been tweaking at home lately?

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Target. They provided me with shopping vouchers to buy product. Opinions are my own.

This post is in partnership with Stockland.

Adore Home via Decor8

While we do love our little home, let’s be honest: it’s not our dream house.

For the most part it suits our needs, but there are some less-than-ideal aspects, such as the lack of space for my growing business, the closed-off kitchen and the transition spaces that are so tiny they can only accommodate one person at a time. (Seriously, sometimes it feels as if we live in one of those puzzles where you can only move one piece at a time.)

Made By Girl’s kitchen on Apartment Therapy

Our next home is likely to be a ’stepping-stone’ house so our dream home is still some years away, but in true Type A style I already have it planned out (to a scary level of detail) in my head.

Architectural details, dark timber floorboards, open-plan kitchen/living, backyard studio, a garden – sigh!

Emily Henderson (photo by Lauren Pieri)

Aesthetics aside, what I’m mostly looking forward to about our eventual home upgrade is to do with family and lifestyle: being able to host parties without people falling over each other, accommodating overnight guests and having space for a family and pets. Basically, a larger house and land to give us room to grow.

Jess Lively

Til then, I will have to be content with browsing my favourite inspiration sources such as magazines Real Living and Adore and blogs like Design*Sponge, Young House Love and Making It Lovely (to name but a few!). And of course, keeping all my dream home ideas on Pinterest.

Jessica McKay & Christopher Van Buskirk’s home on Design*Sponge

How about you: are you dreaming of your forever home or are you lucky enough to be living in it?

And would you like to buy a land package and create the perfect home from scratch or would you prefer to make an existing home your own?

Holey Tree by Lilly & Lolly

Since we’ll be away for Christmas, there will be no decorating here this year, which is a bit sad really. Instead, I’ve gone window-shopping and found the coolest Christmas trees for you!

Head over to the full round-up over on Houzz.

Andrea Smith print via Hardtofind.

I had so much fun virtual shopping for this month’s guest post on Houzz. It’s all about brightening up your home for spring with affordable accessories.

Read it now!

Spring is finally here, hurrah! We’ve had great delight in throwing open the doors and windows for the first time in months.

With that in mind, this month’s guest post on Houzz is all about sprucing up your garden.

Read the post here.

Do you have a decorating project that has you completely stumped? You’ve saved up a bit of money for new furniture but are finding yourself overwhelmed at where to start?

Out of Milk Design Studio wants to help you!

Up and coming interior designer Meg Wilson is launching her business Out of Milk andwants to bulid her portfolio with real-world projects. She’s looking to work with Adelaide-based clients who want a single room makeover and have an appreciation for the re-use of materials.

Keen? Get in touch with Meg… and if you’re one of the lucky ones to be chosen you’ll have to promise to drop us some before & after photos!

I haven’t been paid to write this post – nor any other post you see on Atypial Type A. I came across Out of Milk the other day and genuinely love what Meg is doing and wanted to do what I can do support other local indie creative businesses.

Painting’s not so bad, it’s the clean-up that’s annoying, right? Well, not any more if you use this nifty trick of lining your paint roller tray with alfoil.

See this and other clever painting hacks at Martha Stewart.

BHG

There are so many beautiful and creative wreaths out there these days, either made by a crafty pro for you to buy or tutorials for you to make yourself. But as much as I love them, after a while it becomes a sea of twigs, wool and felt. Which is why I stopped in my tracks when I came across this truly unique idea (albeit featuring an ugly ribbon).

To be honest I’ve never given a second thought to Christmas stockings, but these unique stockings made from sewing patterns are enough to make me wish I had a mantlepiece.

On the other hand (foot?) if Santa has long since forgotten about you and you don’t actually need stockings anymore, how about getting a bit more abstract awesome and opt for vintage wooden sock lasts?

Both from Country Living.

http://www.countryliving.com/homes/holiday-decorating-1208#fbIndex18

Hello lovelies! Did you have a good Christmas and New Years? I had a blissful week off and returned to work and blogging yesterday. My compulsion to do lots of projects around the house was at odds with my no-spending-money mantra lately, so I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but that’s probably a good thing because it forced me to relax! (Plus, I’ll be able to share plenty of budget-friendly ideas soon.)

Mr Postman didn’t deliver some of the presents I’d bought until Christmas Eve (boy, was I glad to see him!) so I didn’t wrap my presents til then. That, plus the fact that I had pre-scheduled last week’s posts so I could have a break, means that you are only seeing my wrapping now. So apologies if you are totally over Christmas now but here is a little wrapup (no pun intended) of decorations and pressies.

I carried through my Woodland theme into the wrapping, with brown paper and plenty of red details and crafty elements.

Swing tags are great, but it’s fun to switch up the labelling with a bit of hand-stamping.

Imagine my delight when The Man anticipated my gift wrapping theme and made his tie in with it! Looks like my Type A tendencies are rubbing off on him. Oh, and if you’re wondering what is going on with the label, there is a bit of a back-story there. Since getting married, I quite often pop out to the letterbox as a normal person and return as a fuming feminist, muttering things about what century we are living in. You see, on every single one of the bazillion forms I had to fill in to change my name, I clearly put my title as Ms but nine times out of ten the returning letter was addressed to Mrs Parsons. Don’t get me wrong, I am proud to be my fella’s Mrs and like to go by that title in my personal life, but I don’t see what relevance my status has to anyone but my friends and family (and more to the point, why can’t these people just read the form properly?). But what really gets the steam coming out of my ears is letters addressed to Mrs Ryan Parsons. Arggh! I was happy to change my surname but can’t I at least keep my first name??

Ahem, sorry, rant over. Clearly hit a bit of a nerve there. Point is it’s become a running joke now hence The Man’s label on my Christmas present.

Aaaaanyway, I’m pretty sure you’re not here for a discussion on patriarchal social constructs, so let’s get back to the pretty things shall we?

I did several ornament tutorials, but here’s another one I made that didn’t get its own post since it was uber easy. I found these cute birdie wooden beads at a craft store and just threaded through some ribbon. I kept it to one per ribbon, but you could do a stack of three birds, separated by plain round beads.

What did Santa bring you? I know I was very lucky: I scored a typography book, guillotine, craft tools, my favourite (discontinued) perfume and a potplant, amongst others. Does my family know me or what? 

I think it’s fine to keep Christmas decorations up until New Years Day, but this year I put them up quite early so even though I really liked them, I was ready to take them down virtually as soon as the leftover turkey had been put in the fridge. We have a small house so decorations can make it feel a bit cluttered and claustrophobic, so now that they’re down I’m enjoying the fresh and spacious feeling.